Suicide Rates Are Now Higher Among Young Adults Than the Middle-Aged

It’s time to update common beliefs about age and suicide

Introduction from Jon Haidt and Zach Rausch:

Today, we are reposting an important new essay from Jean Twenge’s Substack, Generation Tech, which she wrote in response to a claim made by some researchers who are skeptical of our efforts to call attention to the adolescent mental health crisis and link it to the arrival of the phone-based childhood. These skeptics say that we are focusing too much on some demographic groups, such as teens, and especially younger teen girls, who have comparatively low suicide rates, while we say little about other groups, such as middle-aged men, who historically have had the highest rates of suicide.

It is certainly true that the absolute rates of suicide in the U.S. are lowest in pre-teen girls, compared to other groups, but we don’t see that fact as any critique of our work because what first caught Jean Twenge’s attention in her book iGen, was the sudden change in so many indicators of mental health for teens, which began right around 2012 or 2013. As Zach and I joined with Jean to extend this research, we have repeatedly found that the group with the largest relative change (or percentage change) is the younger teen girls, which we take to be an important clue in addressing the scientific mystery: what changed in the early 2010s, in the lives of teens? 

All along, we have noted that the absolute rates of suicide are higher for boys and men than for girls and women, which makes suicide prevention among boys and men extremely urgent (see Richard Reeves’ important work on this at the American Institute for Boys and Men). Also, all along, we have taken it for granted that the highest rates of suicide are found in middle-aged men because that has been true for so long. But as Jean shows in this new essay: That is no longer true. The rise in suicide among Gen Z in the U.S. is so big that it is now Gen Z males, ages 20-24, who have the highest rates of suicide. This is an important new discovery, and is additional evidence against claims that the youth mental health crisis is exaggerated and that we’re focusing on the wrong groups.

— Jon and Zach

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When discussing age and suicide, it’s become near-gospel to note that suicide rates are highest among the middle-aged. “Suicide rates highest among middle-aged men,” read the headline of a 2017 NBC News article. The website for the advocacy group Samaritans says, “Middle-aged men are more likely to die by suicide than any other age group.” In reference to the increasing suicide rate for young people, psychologists Chris Ferguson and Patrick Markey countered that “Suicides are higher among middle-aged adults.” 

Not anymore. 

Figure 1. Suicide rate among U.S. adults ages 20-59, by decade of age, 2007-2021 Source: WISQARS fatal injury database, CDC. Graphed by Jean Twenge for the Generation Tech Substack. 

In 2020 and 2021, the suicide rate among Americans in their 20s or 30s was higher than the suicide rate among those in their 40s or 50s (see Figure 1; 2021 is the most recent data available). 

Between 2019 and 2021, suicide fell among middle-aged adults and continued to rise among younger adults. The end result was the reversal of the long-accepted statistic that more middle-aged Americans take their own lives than younger adults. 

But is it still true that the highest suicide rate is among middle-aged men? That’s what headlines have often noted. 

It is not. The highest suicide rate is now among younger men (see Figure 2). Suicide rates for middle-aged men fell precipitously after 2018 while those for younger men rose. Until men reach 75 or older, when suicides rise due to terminal illness, the highest suicide rates are now among men in their 20s – not the middle-aged.

Figure 2. Suicide rate among U.S. men 20-59, by decade of age, 2007-2021. Source: WISQARS fatal injury database, CDC. Graphed by Jean Twenge for the Generation Tech Substack. 

There’s also a striking pattern among women: The suicide rate among middle-aged women fell after 2019 while the rate for younger women continued to rise (see Figure 3). Middle-aged women are still more likely to take their own lives than younger women, but the gap has narrowed considerably.

Figure 3. Suicide rate among U.S. women 20-59, by decade of age, 2007-2021. Source: WISQARS fatal injury database, CDC. Graphed by Jean Twenge for the Generation Tech Substack. 

In its fatal injury tables, the CDC offers a grim statistic: years of potential life lost. In 2021, the years of life lost to suicide among 50- to 59-year-olds in the U.S. was 80,660. Because 20- to 29-year-olds are younger and their suicide rate is now higher, their years of potential life lost are 347,611– more than four times as many. 

Most obviously, suicide prevention efforts need to focus more on younger men than they do now. The increasingly high rates of depression and self-harm among teen girls and young women also demand our attention.

It’s also worth examining the reason behind the good news: Why did suicide decline among Americans in their 50s in 2020-2021? The most obvious explanation is the changes wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, although a decline in suicide is exactly opposite to the significant rise in suicide many predicted. Perhaps there was a silver lining to the pandemic for those in their 50s, especially those who worked from home and spent more time with their families. The pandemic may have also created a greater appreciation for life, especially among the middle-aged. Only time will tell if the lower suicide rate among those in their 50s was a blip due to the pandemic or a longer-standing trend with other causes as well.

It is imperative to recognize that not all of the news is good. These statistics increase the urgency of determining what has gone wrong for Gen Z and younger Millennials: They are not only depressed but are taking their own lives at high rates. Despite the statements of critics, focusing on the mental health of teens and young adults is not a moral panic. It is now a mandate.